AN ECONOMIC LIFT: Employees work at a Qian'an-based steel tube factory with a production capacity of 2.6 million tons in Hebei Province. The project is funded by Handan Zhengda Steel Pipe Co. Ltd. and has created more than 2,000 jobs (YANG SHIYAO)

Solar Firm Troubles

China's leading solar firm LDK Solar Co. Ltd. filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States on October 22 as a key step for the company's overseas debt restructuring.

In February, the company started its overseas debt restructuring in the Cayman Islands via provisional liquidation to resolve its offshore liquidity issues. The plan involves its overseas subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands, Hong Kong and the United States.

The overseas debt restructuring will be completed this year, said Peng Shaomin, a spokesperson for the photovoltaic products manufacturer based in Xinyu, east China's Jiangxi Province.

Listed in New York in 2007, the company suffered a loss of 1.3 billion yuan ($211 million) in 2013, compared with the loss of 4.3 billion yuan ($701.8 million) in 2012, according to a report issued by the Jiangxi Commerce and Industry Association in September.

Deal With Rio 2016

Chinese sports apparel maker 361 Degrees will be the official uniform supplier for the Rio 2016 Olympics, organizers said on October 22.

The company will provide more than 106,500 uniforms to technical staff, volunteers, test event personnel and torch relay participants, according to a statement on the Rio 2016 website.

"With the responsibility of supplying uniforms to the volunteers and staff, which are extremely important groups for us and for the staging of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, we are confident that 361 Degrees will do a great job in our challenge of delivering excellent and memorable games," said Rio 2016 President Carlos Nuzman.

The financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

Founded in 2003, 361 Degrees has sponsored the Guangzhou 2010 and Incheon 2014 Asian Games, and the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games.

Booming Wind Power

China saw robust development of wind power in the first half of this year while the European green sector struggled, according to data from an industrial expo on October 22.

More than 7 gigawatts of wind power generating capacity was connected to the state grid by the end of June, representing an increase of 30.37 percent year on year, according to experts at the China Wind Power 2014 event, which opened in Beijing on October 22.

The rapid growth brought the country's total wind power generating capacity close to 100 gigawatts, a target policymakers hope to reach by 2015.

After explosive growth in the past decade, global wind power faltered last year in terms of installed capacity as European nations, the industry's main market, cut government subsidies to the sector in the wake of the European sovereign debt crisis.

By contrast, the Chinese Government has increased its support to the green sector through subsidies and tax breaks in a bid to boost the use of non-fossil fuels to reduce pollution and address global climate change.

The wind power sector generated 134.9 billion kWh of electricity in China last year, making it the country's third largest source of electricity, after thermal power and hydropower.

Mobile Expansion

China's e-commerce superstar Alibaba Group has waded into the mobile security sector, unveiling a security application and a mobile security platform on October 22.

The app, Ali Money Shield, serves to protect the safety of online transactions for mobile shoppers by safeguarding accounts and text messages, and filtering out phishing websites. The security platform, Ali Ju'anquan, aims to track unwanted codes and scan vulnerability for app developers.

The move marks Alibaba's latest attempt to further tap the mobile Internet market.

On October 22, the Internet giant joined hands with Meizu, a homegrown smartphone brand, to build a "new mobile Internet industry chain," with Meizu's latest smartphone model MX4 adopting Alibaba's operating system YunOS.